If You Supported Obama, Thank Ned Lamont

The Blogtser yesterday journeyed to Amherst to speak with an upper-level class on political psychology.
He was slightly disappointed that no one among the 20 students was sure the amount of marijuana people will now be allowed to have under the state’s initiative question that decriminalized small amounts of weed. (It’s less than an ounce, by the way)
But maybe they’re so wasted on student loans they don’t have indiscretionary funds.
It seemed like the perfect venue to launch a not-so-hare-brained theory that Ned Lamont, the Greenwich millionaire who won the Democratic Senate primary against Joe Lieberman in 2006, is responsible for Barack Obama’s presidential victory. Sure, Lamont dropped off the face of the earth after Lieberman went his own way and won the 2006 general election under the banner of Connecticut for Lieberman.
But here’s the theory:
If there had been no primary challenge, Lieberman would have gone back to the Senate majority caucus and continue life as a mostly Democratic lawmaker.
Instead, Lieberman, miffed that Connecticut Ds didn’t love him anymore, moved farther to the right and even started campaigning for his buddy John McCain. It clearly got to the point where McCain wanted to anoint Lieberman (who lost the vice presidency as Al Gore’s 2000 running mate) as his running mate heading into the GOP National Convention. Party insiders told McCain he’d have an embarrassing walkout of delegates if he did that.
So McCain, channeling his famous temper, said OK, fine, you want someone to energize the fundamentalist base? Let’s run Gov. Palin against Joe Biden. After all, she knows where Russia is.
The rest of the story is rock ‘n’ roll.Thanks Ned!